Wu Shigong listened to Li Lu's address to himself, and he used to call himself "cousin-in-law", but now the word "table" has been omitted, and he directly calls himself "brother-in-law." Such an affectionate and somewhat sensual title shows that Li Luxiang's matter of begging for himself must not be small.

So, Wu Shigong also smiled and asked: "It's all a family, there's nothing bad to say." Stop playing dumb riddles, what the hell is going on? Tell me about it. ”

Li Lu and Wan Wendong glanced at each other, and immediately said to Wu Shigong: "Brother-in-law! A few days ago, you went to my brother and me to buy some iron materials, and my brother didn't hide it from my brother-in-law. This time, my brother came to Runing Mansion to thank his brother-in-law with Wan Yuanwai. ”

"You're welcome! Polite! That's a mutually beneficial thing. Wu Shigong immediately said a few polite words, and then waited for Li Lu's next words.

To tell the truth, Wu Shigong passed Li Lu several times and purchased a large amount of iron materials from Nanyang Mansion. And the price of those iron materials is indeed much cheaper than the official price of iron materials, which also saves Wu Shigong a lot of silver.

You must know that the Ming Dynasty implemented a monopoly on salt and iron, and the official price of this iron material was quite high. As an iron ore mining area in Nanyang Mansion, those large mines were managed by the mine superintendent sent by the Inner Court, and Wu Shigong did not have any way to buy some cheap iron materials.

And Wu Shigong also inquired clearly from Yuan Xingshan, who was doing specific things, that the iron material he got from Li Lu must have been mined from local private mines, so the price was so cheap. However, Wu Shigong got the benefits anyway, and he didn't care if the iron material came from right or wrong. He didn't care how much silver Li Lu earned in this kind of transaction.

"There are a few iron mines in my brother's station." Li Lu introduced Wan Wendong to Wu Shigong, "This specific matter, let Wan Yuanwai and your brother-in-law talk to you." ”

That Wan Wendong also immediately saluted Wu Shigong and said: "Wu Shoubei, this time the villain took the liberty to visit, just because he asked Wu Shoubei for something!" ”

Then, Na Wan Wendong introduced their intentions in detail.

It turned out that this Wan Wendong did occupy several iron-producing hills in Nanyang Mansion and opened a private mine. As the owner of a private mine, Na Wan Wendong must be a black-and-white figure in the local area.

Don't talk about him, in order to grab land with other private mine bosses, and in order to squeeze those miners even more, he has a team of five or six hundred people in his home. And this situation is also very normal, as can be seen from the performance of those small private coal mine owners in modern times.

However, as a private mine, Wan Wendong's iron sales channels are always a little inconvenient. And Wu Shigong bought Wan Wendong's iron material through Li Lu, and also solved the problem of iron sales for Wan Wendong. So after coming and going, Wan Wendong also became familiar with Li Lu.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were no laws to protect miners such as the "Labor Law" and the "Safety Production Law", and in order to earn more silver, Wan Wendong, the owner of private mines, carried out a vicious oppression of those miners. How to describe it? The lives of those miners, even much inferior to those of Wu Shigong's lowest-class serfs, were living in dire straits.

But where there is oppression, there will definitely be resistance. But although those miners are numerous, they used to be scattered. Under the threat of force from Wan Wendong's family, coupled with the recent drought that has caused a large number of refugees, Wan Wendong's private mine bosses can still easily suppress the resistance of those miners.

But something has been wrong since the year before. I don't know where a group of horse bandits came from, they first beat away the owner of a small private mine near Wan Wendong and occupied a private mine themselves.

Then the bandits began to organize the miners in their iron mines, raising their salaries and giving them a brief military training.

And when those horse bandits seized a private mine at the beginning, because they were unwilling to be the first bird, the nearby private mine bosses like Wan Wendong just stood by and watched. And now the tiger is in trouble.

As soon as the bandits gained a foothold, they began to expand. And under the support of some miners who were dissatisfied with the owners of the private mines, the horse bandits captured several nearby private mines one after another.

Something was wrong with this situation, and the private mine bosses who felt the crisis immediately united, and they sent their subordinates to attack the bandits.

You must know that Wan Wendong, the family members of these private mine bosses, add up to more than 1,000 people, plus the food and training level of those family members are not low, it should be said that the combat effectiveness is still above the combat effectiveness level of the general Ming army at that time, so Wan Wendong These private mine bosses all think that their own operation should be captured.

Unexpectedly, the gang of horse bandits had already trained the miners and trained them to look like an army. In addition, the number of miners is large, the terrain is familiar, and there are miners under the owners of private mines to do internal response. After the first battle, those family members were defeated, and the gang of horse bandits took advantage of the situation to rob several private mines. Even Wan Wendong's private mine was seized in the past.

At this moment, Wan Wendong's private mine bosses are in a hurry. In desperation, they immediately scraped together the money to ask for help from the local garrison, that is, Li Lu and Li Garrison, and asked Li Lu to lead troops to exterminate this gang of horse bandits.

And Li Lu has been a garrison in Nanyang Mansion for more than four years, so he also knows a little about the local situation, and of course he knows what those private mines are all about.

And those private mines, since they have become private mines, they must be some mining areas that are inconvenient to mine and transport. As the so-called poor mountains and bad waters come out of the people, Li Lu is not unaware of the fierce fighting of the miners in these private mines. Therefore, at first, Li Lu was reluctant to wade into this muddy water.

However, those private mine bosses did get a lot of silver, and Li Lu also obtained a lot of silver in the process of providing iron materials to Wu Shigong, so when he arrived at Zuihou, Li Lu still agreed.

Li Lu also relied on this to do so. After the rebellion of the Holy Spirit Society, he also seriously trained more than 400 personal soldiers, and he temporarily recruited some men from among the refugees, and he also gathered 1,200 men.

In addition, those private mine bosses have gathered thousands of family members, and the private mine bosses have hired seven or eight hundred bandits and horse bandits, so Li Lu has more than 3,000 horses.

So, Li Lu led the army of this official and bandit family and began to suppress the bandits. According to Li Lu's idea, as long as his army arrived, those mud-legged miners would definitely flee in the wilderness. At that time, Li Lu only needs to return the captured mines to those private mine bosses, and he will be considered to have completed the task.

As for whether those private mine bosses can keep the mines in the future, it is not a matter of Li Lu's concern. It's best that those private mine bosses can't keep it, so Li Lu can send troops again and earn such extra money.

But to Li Lu's surprise, those miners not only did not escape, but they also gathered almost all more than 4,000 miners under the organization of the gang of horse bandits, and opened a battle with Li Lu.

This behavior made Li Lu happy at that time, because in the eyes of the officials and soldiers at that time, as long as the officials and soldiers came out, no bandit dared not to escape. Of course, the combat effectiveness level of the Ming army at this time was also much higher than that of those bandits.

But I didn't expect that as soon as the battle began, those miners fought very orderly, and relatively speaking, Li Lu's army became a rabble because of several parts. When he arrived in Zuihou, Li Lu was also beaten a big defeat.

If it weren't for the fact that the miners were still a little afraid of the official army, they did not pursue Li Lu's army after they won the battle. Otherwise, the losses of Li Lu's army would have been even greater.

And the occurrence of this situation made Wan Yuanwai, these private mine bosses and Li Lu worried. Because those private mines are illegal after all, it is impossible to go to the higher government to ask for reinforcements to do justice. And Li Lu suffered this defeat inexplicably, and he didn't want Shangfeng to know, and then he inexplicably suffered a punishment.

But the matter of the bandits' occupation of the private mine must be resolved. When he arrived at Zuihou, Li Lu thought of Wu Shigong, his brother-in-law, and thought of the force in Wu Shigong's hands. When he put forward his idea to those private mine bosses, of course those private mine bosses agreed as if they had caught a life-saving straw. Because no matter what, it's better than a private mine being seized and losing all your money.

At this time, they heard about Wu Shigong's birthday, so they sent a representative Wan Wendong to come to Runing Mansion with gifts with Li Lu to meet Wu Shigong.